Customer Reviews

Cold White Light

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Masters of depressive metal have done it! Their best album that even beats one of my all time favourites, Down. This album is simply breathtaking. Cold White Light ain't as heavy as Down nor as catchy, but much more emotional and thoughtful. Production is also top notch. Listening to Cold White Light envokes many emotions in me at the same time: depression, hope, grief and joy. No other album has ever done that. It's funny to read how some people wonder the theme chosen by the band. Depression and hatred and all that is very common and daily mood for a Finnish guy. It goes without saying if someone (me) feels this way most of the time. Especially wintertime it's very dark and no sunlight at all for many weeks or months, one or another inevitably begins to hold and ponder these thoughts in his/her head. It's something you can't experience and feel if you live in the tropical zone or somewhere nice, warm and sunny place. It's a very natural subject to start writing songs.

"Cross My Heart and Hope to Die" is simply amazing! The guitar sound is something never heard before, not even from Sentenced, there's something so emotional, it's unmatched. Laihiala's vocals are so sad and emotional that it almost makes me cry, so sad yet so hopeful. Maybe the best track on album and one of their all time best.
"Brief is the Light" Absolutely beautiful melodies and lyrics. This is actually very positive song, at least for me it has become my cure for depression. The song and lyrics are extremely effective when listened at the dark of winter or at a brightest summernight when sun never sets. Then it hits you, 'brief is the light', and I mean daylight and summer alltogether is very brief, though the lyrics are about the light of life. Guitar solo is amazing. Competes with "Cross My Heart..." for the best song on this album.
"Neverlasting" a really trashy piece that shows Sentenced can still make very heavy songs. And that clapping effect in the middle of the song is not handclapping, it's Laihiala (or someone) clapping his bare buttocks with wet hands =D.
"Blood and Tears" with trademark guitar sound and riffs from Tenkula, very catchy and rockin' song.
"The Luxury of a Grave" has over the top funny lyrics but still very nice song with again awesome guitars.

It's difficult to discribe how I feel about this album, or what it means to me. It's like a neverending elixir of life for me, purification. Listening to it makes me rejoice of life once again. Right now when I'm writing this (and listening the album) is a beautiful summernight at 1:00am and the sun is setting lighting the whole sky, and to rise again in an hour...and I feel great!

Need to say? Get this album immediately if you want to experience something depressing...or joyful...or anything at all that touches your emotions!

-Make the most out of your day/for brief is the light on our way/on this momentary trail-

I am a fan and have almost all of their albums and I must say this is the best one by Far! The progression continues out of Crimson with a revamp of the rhythm guitars to eliminate that monotonous sound each previous album was plaqued with.

***This album does not sound anything like Crimson!***
IT ROCKS! - I am Serious, buy this now, you WILL NOT BE Dissapointed!

90% of the songs you listen to right off the bat and enjoy indefinately. The other 10 percent grows on you keeping the album fresh (even though the album never grows old). The lyrics are what you would expect from the Northernmost Killers with a slight shift away from suicide and leaning a little heavier on the hopelessness/depression foot, which is contrast to the up-beat, Kick-butt, rock feel of the album. A Million Thanks to the Northernmost Killers for such an Excellent album!

Sentenced are not a really brutal or all that heavy metal band. So if thats what your looking for than stop reading this review. Instead they play catchy metal with great melodies and simple song structures. The singers voice fits the music and lyrics perfectly. He is great at evoking the feeling of the songs which circle around things like suicide,depression, and lost love among other things. songs like cross my heart and hope to die,neverlasting,and brief is the light are what make this a four star cd. there is some filler though like the song guilt and regret though there is not much. some stupid lyrics in the song the luxury of a grave are the reason for only four stars.
Bottom line:the cold white light is a very solid but not quite great metal release by sentenced. If you never heard of them think catchy depressing heavy metal. And if you have this cd continues the sound established on their last couple of cd's.

Now before I write about this amazing cd I just want to say that I have no prior experience with Sentenced. I do listen to a wide variety of metal and music in general but had never checked them out until a few months ago.

What I can say about this album is that it has sincere emotion and heartfelt lyrics mixed with very catchy music. There isn't really a need for the skip track button seeing as how the entire album is stellar. They paint a very morose mood without coming off as gimmicky or cheesy. Although I am a fan of HIM, I believe Sentenced deserve to be as well known, if not more, than them.

Fans of anything from HIM to doom metal or just rock and roll should pick this up. Depression never felt this good!

I must say that I am impressed with this album, and how Sentenced's musical style has truly progressed and mellowed up over the years, much like Amorphis (who are also native to Finland, home of Sentenced). I have heard some of the stuff off of this album (I heard the songs "No One There," "Neverlasting," "Cross My Heart And Hope To Die," and "Blood And Tears" on Music Choice-Metal, seen a video for "No One There," and heard samples for "Konevitsan Kirkellot," "Brief Is The Light," and "Aika Multaa Muistot" here, as well as the sample for "Excuse Me While I Kill Myself" off their website). I thoroughly enjoyed them. I plan to buy this album. But I wonder one thing about it. Of all the possible themes, why is suicide the theme of this and practically all their other albums? I'm surprised they haven't killed themselves by now. After 8 albums, you'd think they would have. Anyway, the album's great, and it also includes the cool enhanced video for the song "Killing Me Killing You" (off their previous effort, 2000's "Crimson). Sentenced and Amorphis are fighting a hard-to-win battle for Finland's kings of heavy metal. I prefer Sentenced, but that's just me.

I'm the (heavy metal) music director at my college's radio station so heavy metal is my thing. This is one of the finest CD's crafted by anyone that was released in the last few years. Here it is more then a year later and I still find this CD in regular rotation in my CD player. A simple warning. It's certainly not for everyone. Those hardcore ... metal fans that think metal can only be good if it's lightningly fast and brutal should avoid this CD. This is not the nu-metal that you hear drowning the commercial radio station's airwaves ..., this band has substance. The subject matter of this CD make it akin to some NIN songs in that if you are depressed listening to it can make you teary eyed, and listening to it when you are not depressed can make you blue. This CD is full of the emotion these guys seem to identify with. It paints a beautiful portrait of the cold baron wasteland Finland must appear to be during the winter in the rural areas. This band is no where near happy and they are damned if they won't take you on the journey with them.

I fancy myself a pretty big Sentenced fan... every album I've heard from them (with the exception of the boring Shadows of the Past) is top notch melodic metal. In that respect, the Cold White Light is no different, although I consider it a step back.

Coming to the forefront are the band's 80s goth rock influences (don't tell me you can't hear any Cure in Guilt and Regret), which have gradually proliferated over the course of their career. When I heard Cold White Light being touted as a return to the more aggressive style of albums like Down, my (as well as many other fans I assume) fingers were crossed. I don't know what the critics were smoking, because there are only two songs: Neverlasting and Luxury of a Grave ( good songs, might i add) that could be misconstrued as more aggressive.

I like the mellow stuff, but there is an abundance of it here, and songs like Everything is Nothing put me to sleep. This is coming from a guy who LOVES Crimson. Not to say that I don't dig it... there's plenty excellent songs here, but it doesn't own me the way Crimson and Down do.

Standout tracks: Luxury of a Grave, Neverlasting (my fav), Brief is the Light, Excuse Me While I Kill Myself.

The Finnish band Sentenced started as straight death metal. It's style has changed over the past few years, with a melodic blend of death and doom metal. Their latest release, 'A Cold White Light', shows just how much their music has improved. Similar in style to Swedish melodic death, this album keeps everyone interested by providing clean vocals and excellent guitar playing. My favorite tracks are 'Cross My Heart and Hope to Die', 'Neverlasting' and 'Blood and Tears'. All of Sentenced's releases are good, but this has the perfect blend of melancholy and heavy guitar. This CD is a must-have for every metal fan.

I am a huge fan of Sentenced. I have all their albums including the early death metal material and, as unusual as it may seem, I like them all. In my opinion Sentenced made the most interesting albums during their transition from death metal to the current style so Amok and Down are still my favorites. After Down I thought the band slipped up a bit. Frozen and Crimson are not bad but they just feel too simple, formulistic, and therefore a bit boring (especially after repeated listens). Especially on Crimson, the music sounds a bit one dimensional and can be a bit too poppy for my taste.

I didn't have very high expectations for the Cold White Light but I have to say that I am very pleasantly surprised. It seems that the band is bringing some variety and complexity back in their music with this release. Unlike on Crimson each song sounds very different from the next and the music doesn't suddenly go super basic during the verses which is what I found really annoying about Crimson. Whereas many tracks on the last release at times sounded empty, as if there was not enough there, the music on the Cold White Light sounds more densely layered. No, Sentenced have not abandoned their sound and started shredding away but there is just enough there to keep things interesting and not too predictable.

Fans of the early Sentenced with Jarva who hate all the newer material will undoubtedly hate this one, but if you heard Crimson and found it boring give Sentenced another shot and check this album out because I can say with confidence that this is their best release since Down.

I have known of the Finnish band Sentenced for a couple of years, but before The Cold White Light, their work never really suck out as anything special for me. That was why I was pleasantly surprised when I first heard this album - in my opinion its a tighter album than anything Sentenced has done in the past.

In Cold White Light, Sentenced has brought forward a rather 'traditional' sounding metal album - traditional in the sense of Black Album era Metallica. There is nothing fancy about Sentenced, but you get the impression that they accomplished exactly wanted they wanted with this record: to make a solid, no-frills rock/metal album. Cold White Light almost plays as a throwback to the days of simpler, guitar based metal with killer solos. Songs like "Cross My Heart And Hope to Die", "Excuse Me While I Kill Myself", and "Blood and Tears" play like metal anthems of the past. There is nothing on this album that has not been done before, but give Sentenced full credit for doing it almost as well as it could possibly be done. When compared to other like-sounding metal albums, The Cold White Light stands tall.

The production on the album is excellent, creating a very clean, tight sound. Musically, Sentenced has never been better. The guitar work on the album also stands out, especially the great melodic guitar solos. Where Cold White Light really differentiates itself is in the subject matter of the songs. The album is not depressing, but it does have a main theme dealing with death, sometimes in a rather straightforward manner. At times the lyrics can be less-than subtle.

Although metal purists might consider Sentenced to be much too commercial sounding for their tastes, anyone who enjoyed any of Sentenced previous work will find no complaints with this straight up metal album.